


Born of Ash

by Darkrealmist



Series: Scroll of Origins [4]
Category: Magic: The Gathering (Card Game)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Betrayal, Body Horror, Bugs & Insects, Card Games, Character Study, Fame, Fantasy, Fire, Gen, Gods, Japanese Mythology & Folklore, Kamigawa (Magic: The Gathering), Legends, Magic, Master/Servant, Military, Origin Story, Puns & Word Play, Samurai, Spirits, Transformation, War, Wordcount: 100-1.000, Wordcount: 100-500, Wordcount: Under 10.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:14:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25039075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkrealmist/pseuds/Darkrealmist
Summary: The tale of a disgraced ronin whose desire for a master blackens Kamigawa in ash.
Series: Scroll of Origins [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1805515





	Born of Ash

Born of Ash

Author’s Note: It’s been almost fourteen years since I wrote a fic set on Kamigawa, so let’s continue this series. Enjoy the story and R&R.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of _Magic: The Gathering_.

Card Reference: <http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=74148>

Summary:

The tale of a disgraced ronin whose desire for a master blackens Kamigawa in ash.

* * *

The history of Kamigawa runs rampant with the stories of great heroes and others of legendary status. Lands once trembled and worshipped the all-powerful daimyo, Konda. Jushi students mastered mystical arts at the Minamo School under the guidance of Sensei Hisoka and Lady Azami. Trees and fields of flowers grew wherever the monk, Azusa, passed. The rats bowed down to their lord, Marrow-Gnawer, and Akki poets recited praise of Zo-Zu the Punisher.

What of the lesser warriors? The conquerors who were not born conquerors? The travelers who had not traveled far enough?

So begins the tale of Akuta, Born of Ash.

…

Betrayer…Heretic…

He ruminated the vulgar characters scribes would take down to record his treachery this day.

But the thought did not torment him. He was a samurai without a master. A ronin wandering lands without purpose. He had no name to dirty. The very fact he lived carried the most shameful dishonour conferrable.

He scowled at the village of his birth. While he remembered it small, the Takenuma Swamp had claimed it, incorporating the generously called “buildings” partly into the fen.

The Kami War was intensifying.

If he couldn’t be of use on the battlefield flying Konda’s banner, perhaps he could be of use to the kami.

War or not, they revered the gods. Whatever the reason behind their conflict, through grovelling appeasement, the spirits could give his vigil meaning again.

It wasn’t a lapse in acuity sent by Kyoki, Sanity’s Eclipse. It was a difference in wisdom. Humans and their allies would be on the losing side, despite Konda’s declarations to the contrary. The warrior merely realized sooner than everyone else.

One cannot fight a river, especially if a kaijin surfaced and gobbled your army.

The bitter bushi burned his old house as tribute, and the kami answered, sinking him to the bog’s underbelly.

His stay below – pulled into the Kakuriyo – altered him. From the black filth wriggled an obscenely large maggot, welted fusiform body armoured in charred flesh and bone. The new spirit’s gums were staked to its eyeless head with lit incense sticks, the lower jaw a set of taloned arms doubling as bottom teeth. Sulphurous smoke vented up the pores on its back, ember aspects orbiting the central mass, which crushed bamboo-staved monuments.

The cursed ronin bid his life and reaped pain’s reward.

Servitude.

Where the ash fell, Akuta the spirit roared, paying the price Akuta the man couldn’t pay but once.


End file.
